Through the day
this room was a cheerful place. I seldom entered it without finding
one or more visitors, especially in the morning, when the surgeons
always met there, and their wives generally joined them. On the other
side of the hall was the distributing-room in one corner, in the other
a store-room, where, also, under my own lock and key, I kept the
effects of dead soldiers, labelled and ready for identification by
their friends. I was assisted in this work, in keeping the linen-room
in order, and in various other ways, by a young German who had been
detailed for that purpose. He was a well-educated young man and a fine
musician,--in fact, had been a professor of music before the war, had
entered the service intelligently, desiring to remain in active
service, but some disability caused his detail. His position was no
sinecure: he was expected to keep a full account of all stores in my
department, all bedding, hospital clothing, all clothing of the
patients, and a great many other things, having full charge of the
laundry and the laundresses, with whom he was always in "hot water."
For this reason he was dubbed by the surgeons _General Blandner_, and
his employees were called _Blandner's Brigade_.
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